Excavation machines such as backhoe loaders, haul trucks, wheel loaders, scrapers, and other types of heavy equipment, are used to perform a variety of tasks. Some of these tasks involve carrying large, awkward, loose, and/or heavy loads along rough and crowded roadways. And because of the size of the machines and/or poor visibility provided to operators of the machines, these tasks can be difficult to complete effectively. For this reason, some machines are equipped with imaging systems that provide views of a machine's environment to the operator.
Conventional imaging systems include one or more cameras that capture different sections of the machine's environment. These sections are then stitched together to form a partial or complete surround view.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0236142 of Enix et al., which published on Sep. 20, 2012 (the '142 publication), discloses an imaging system having a plurality of video cameras mounted in a row on a camera support. The cameras capture images of an environment of the machine and have overlapping fields of view. A processor is responsive to the cameras for determining the relative position of a point of interest on a surface in the overlapping fields of view of at least two adjacent cameras.
Although the system of the '142 publication may be acceptable for some applications, the system may still be less than optimal. For example, certain machines may be equipped with an implement, such as a movable arm, that blocks the view of one or more of the cameras. In this scenario, with a conventional imaging system, such as the one in the '142 publication, an operator of the machine will not be able to see the portion of the environment that is blocked by the implement.
The disclosed system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems of the prior art.